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The aim of this paper is to explore the effects of globalization on education in developing countries and how the teachers at some higher education institutions in the Southwest region of Cameroon understand education for sustainable development and what challenges they face with the implementation of education for sustainable development in the teacher education curriculum.

Design/methodology/approach

The methods employed included documentary analysis, interviews and observation.

Using a multi case study design, data from semi-structure interviews and observations with teachers in the classroom and a sample of school leaders were collected and analyzed. The study adopted a qualitative content analysis to analyze data from interviews and observations.

Findings

The study shows that with the impact of globalization there is no systematic and focused preparation of secondary school teachers for education for sustainable development in the teacher training programmes. The findings also indicate that teachers were positive toward the inclusion of education for sustainable development into the teacher training curriculum. Some challenges for mainstreaming, implementation and broadening of ESD across the curriculum were identified. It also emphasized the need to integrate education for sustainable development across the curriculum and professional development for teachers in the implementation of ESD.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited by its focus on the programme-based implementation of education for sustainable development in teacher training institutions, which did not include any course-based implementation by individual teachers.

Practical implications

Given the effects of globalization, challenges and obstacles for implementing ESD and in order to address the issues, the study argue for joint leadership across the relevant institutional levels (government, university/teacher training colleges and other stake holders), and for the integration of sustainable development throughout the curriculum, rather than being taught as a separate subject.

Originality/value

The study provides empirical evidence for some of the major challenges teacher trainers face for implementing education for sustainable development in teacher training institutions in Cameroon.

9. Implementing Education for Sustainable Development and Pedagogical Challenges in teacher training programme

Biamba, Cresantus

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

ESD has a transformational role since it aims at encouraging the transformation of education and reorientation of societies in order to reach sustainable development (UNESCO, 2014). Teaching and learning for ESD are encouraged to promote critical thinking, to imagine the future and make decisions in order to empower learners to take action towards building a sustainable society. Pedagogy makes the connection between teaching and learning and is therefore crucial for education’s contribution to sustainable development. This paper examines pedagogical approaches that promote sustainability and how teachers might be empowered to improve pedagogic practice for diverse learners and in challenging context. It explores pedagogical contents of ESD, and the pedagogical challenges educators face when the ESD paradigm is put into practice particularly across different disciplines in the context of teacher education in a developing country. The methods employed included documentary analysis, interviews and observation. The findings are based on interviews with student teachers after their teaching practice placement, as well documentary evidence. The paper also suggests ways in which educators can address difficulties when trying to infuse the ESD paradigm into teacher education programmes.

10. Integration and education of immigrant children at Swedish schools: A case study of two schools

Biamba, Cresantus

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

The integration of immigrant children has emerged as a pressing yet controversial issue in public debates around the world over the past two decades. Education of immigrant children is one of the numerous pedagogical phenomena that continue to arouse questions concerning the efficiency of dealing with them. This study examines the education of immigrant school children in Sweden, focusing on Swedish instruction, cultural awareness, parent participation, and teacher preparation for working with immigrant students. Data collection involved interviews with teachers at two schools and with immigrant children. A qualitative study based on content analysis of semi-structured interviews with immigrant students explain the different challenges posed by the integration process of immigrant children in schools. Based on the findings the study offer recommendations in order to improve the academic and social integration of immigrant children.

11. Dramaundervisningens möjligheter i förskolan

Blom, Madeleine

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

Sundström, Jennifer

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to international research on the media’s role when it comes to naming and framing the debate about teacher education, by using Sweden as a case. Four major newspapers in 2016-2017 have been analyzed in relation to: a) the challenges/strengths of current teacher education, b) solutions for changes/improvements in current teacher education and c) who the actors for promoting these changes/improvements might be. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the study shows that the media mainly emphasizes the negative aspects of teacher education, specifically a scepticism towards the scientific basis. An outside-inprofessionalism is emphasized. The desired changes are mainly concerned with altering postmodern perspectives to cognitive ones, followed by organizational changes and the development of teachers’ professional skills. Finally, the debate is fuelled by a few people outside the field of educational research who argue that researchers in psychology and neuroscience should have the power to define the content of education. The results corresponds well with international research, but at the same time provide information about current challenges and solutions that advocators in media highlights in relation to Swedish teacher education. They bring to fore the need for more nuanced debates about teacher education.

28. Lärarutbildning i massmedialbelysning

Edling, Silvia

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

The desire to protect children from violence is clearly formulated in the Children’s Right Convention (CRV). For example, the right of children to be protected from:” /…/all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child is clearly stated in Article 19 of the CRC, which was ratified by Sweden in 1989 (United Nations, 1989). The right of children not to be subjected to various forms of violence is also emphasized in other international treaties signed and/or ratified by the Swedish state (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2010, the Treaty of Lisbon). In order to assure this right, the Swedish legal framework (Prop., 2009/10:232) stipulates that the subjection of children to violence should be avoided at all cost. Italy assures the right of a childhood free from violence thanks to its legal framework as well. Italy’s legal framework is made up of the international documents previously cited, the CRC (ratified in 1991 with the LEGGE 27 maggio 1991, n. 176. Italy’s legal framework is also made up of national laws, in particular by the founding one: the Constitution. Art. 3. This article is used as a base for the creation of national policy to prevent the subjection of children to violence.

In this study, the word violence is used in a broad sense to cover the numerous situations in which people are at risk of being physically and psychologically damaged (Hamby and Grych, 2013), such as in cases of discrimination, bullying, violation, or harassment (cf. Greeff and Grobler, 2008; Parkes, 2007). The ambition to oppose and counteract violence through juridification in schools has increased in Sweden through the introduction of the Discrimination Act (SFS, 2008:567) and the paragraph regarding the treatment of others in the Education Act (SFS, 2010:800, paragraph 6). For what concerns the treatment of others and discrimination, Italy refers to the National Plan for educating to the respect of others (Rispetta le differenze. Piano nazionale per l’educazione al rispetto). This plan aims at promoting the values stated in the 3rd article of the Constitution by educating and training students, teachers and families.

There are several studies conducted in Italy and Sweden about how this particular right is approached in policy (Francia and Edling, 2016, Edling and Francia, 2017, Biffi, 2017). Although, children’s right not to be subjected to violence is given attention in many countries today it is still a question of negotiation as concerns how these rights are materialized in each country’s educational policy as well as why they are described as important to consider. Whereas Sweden is described as a highly secular (previously protestant) and individualistic country, Italy is pictured as a non-secular, catholic country premiering the collective (see Meyer, 2014; Integrationsverket, 2005).

Against this background, it becomes of interest to compare how two different countries like Sweden and Italy approach children’s right not to be subjected to various forms of violence by analysing educational policy that presents motifs and directives for teachers in different stages. In Italy, the plan for the 2016-2019 teacher training in chapter 4.6 (Piano per la formazione dei docenti 2016-2019) declares that teachers have to be trained in order to teach them how to promote respect for others in their classrooms in order to prevent violence.

Method

The following questions are asked: 1. How do the different policy documents in Sweden and Italy describe and explain teachers’ responsibilities to oppose violence in school? 2. Are there any similarities and/or differences between the countries as regards the question above? If so what kind of similarities and/or differences? To conduct a comparative study, both linkages and differences need to be taken into account. Linkages are created by posing similar questions to the material analysed and differences imply awareness that all comparisons always contain cultural and contextual differences and contestations that need to be addressed (e.g. No´voa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003). As regards linkages, Kazamias (2001) points to the need to use theoretical concepts as lenses to make more 200 coherent comparisons (p. 446) – in this case theoretical understandings of violence. This paper is based on a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of educational policy highlighting teachers’ responsibilities to promote children’s right not to be subjected to violence. Based on Fairclough (1992, 2000, 2001), we argue that CDA facilitates an understanding of the dialectical relation between discourse and social practice. Following Fairclough (2000), the interpretation of the data encompasses three dimensions: (a) text analysis (description), (b) processing analysis (interpretation), and (c) social analysis (explanation). In our study, these dimensions correspond to our research questions.

Expected outcomes

The study aims to distinguish how teachers’ responsibilities to oppose violence towards children is expressed and motivated by the various policy documents. The comparison makes it possible to discuss plausible similarities and differences between the countries as well as discuss cultural and political explanations for the findings that can help combat child violence.

In the Convention of the right of the Child (CRC) it is stated that all children should be protected from all kinds of violence. However war, social conflicts and climatic catastrophes have placed immigrant children at risk to object for violence. The purpose of this paper is to study how Sweden politically advice actors within the educational field to approach newly arrived pupils in education by placing it in relation to research about violence. What is particularly payed attention to in the policy document is need to oppose the following risks: b)being in risk of exclusion, c) facing perceptions of assimilation, and f) a lack of clear responsibilities amongst the actors assisting the immigrant children. A fuzziness of responsibilities is at time created with concepts such as “the school should”.

Education for the Other is the most dominant strategy emphasizing that the newly arrived child’s needs in education should be recognized as well as the importance to distribute what is lacking to promote the pupil’s development. The advices do not say anything about the content of knowledge required amongst various actors in order to do analysis of processes.

Starting from a social justice perspective within the field of leadership (Shields 2007, 2010) this paper aims to contribute in understanding various conceptions of leadership in relation to violent cases at a Swedish boarding school. More specifically the paper asks the following question: How do leaders in various positions describe their responsibilities as leaders in relation to violent cases that took place at a Swedish boarding school?

Methodological framework:

The paper is based on a Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) (1992, 2000, 2001) of different educational and media documents concerning cases of violence at a boarding Swedish schools. This analysis involves following three dimensions: (a) text analysis (description), (b) processing anal- sis (interpretation), and (c) social analysis (explanation). In our study, these dimensions correspond to our research questions.

The expected conclusions/results

This study shows that school violence is perceived both as a public or a private matter. When school violence is conceived as a private matter, the leaders point out the necessity of protecting and honoring the privacy of the school. In these cases pupils’ education is considered as a private good and therefore the competency to deal with violent acts is considered as a “family” outside the governance of the public Based on the libertarian conception of childhood. On the contrary when the school violence is described as a public matter, the leaders claims for government intervention to protect the rights of children as stipulated in Swedish national steering documents and in national and international legislation on children’s rights.

This result of the study indicates that systemic violence at the boarding school in question can be interpreted as a part of a socialization culture of privileged classes aiming to educate leaders that can maintain and reproduce power positions and privileges in the Swedish society. Four different discourses of child violence emerged in the analysis, namely: (1) violence is created because some few people break the rule, (2) the victims of violence don’t behave properly, (3) boy scams happen but are harmless, and (4) because quarrels are part of family (the private) life. The study provides with examples of a hidden curriculum that endorses leadership models that are not compatible with the development of democracy and diversity in the Swedish society. Taken account that a considerable percentage of boarding school students will have power positions in different areas of the Swedish society in the future, it is important to reflect on the possibilities for democratic, and hence non-violent, socialization the models of leadership presented in this study promote.

35. Sensing as an ethical dimension of teacher professionality

Edling, Silvia

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

Frelin, Anneli

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

Drawing on the ethics of alterity and the ethics of dissensus, this study addresses how teacher professionality can be understood in relation to the notion of sensing. Both these ethics indicate a desire to oppose various forms of violence in society. The author challenges the assumption that all that is needed to oppose violence is the moulding of a proper moral character. According to Lévinas’ and Ziarek’s writings on sensing the Other, education alone will not overcome power dynamics and the unconscious distancing between people. Instead, these aspects need to be continuously addressed by teachers. Rather than trying to find the best ethical theory, we contend that theories cannot replace the critical judgement of teachers, which necessarily presumes a more widened view and more thoughtful choices in their ever-changing practices.

In the light of current tendencies for stable democratic states to be challenged by authoritarian forms of governance, issues of democracy and its status in teacher education institutions need to be problematised. This chapter focuses on democracy as an ideological form of governance in Swedish teacher education and discusses the implications that the various views of democracy have on teachers’ professionalism. Teachers’ responsibilities are fleshed out based on the current political guidelines for teacher education and discussed in relation to the tensions between free speech and the importance of taking a stand against oppression. Accordingly, students enrolled in Swedish teacher education institutions are expected to actively create conditions in everyday life that promote equal opportunities for children and students. Whereas some student teachers tend to regard free speech as the cornerstone of democracy, the data gathered from the ICCS study of teachers’ ways of understanding their democratic obligations indicates a more nuanced approach to obligations linked to democracy. The majority of these teachers stress that they actively intervene in discussions when students’ free speech risks violating ethnic groups.

37. Let’s talk about teacher education!

Edling, Silvia

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

Liljestrand, Johan

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science.

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to research on themedia’s role in naming and framing the debate about teachereducation using Sweden as a case study. This is done by analysinghow articles published in four major Swedish newspapers from2016–2017 define: a) the challenges/strengths of current teachereducation and b) the kind of teacher professionalism that thedescriptions give rise to. Using content analysis, the study showsthat the media mainly emphasises the negative aspects of teachereducation and, in particular, scepticism of the scientific basiswhere postmodernism is regarded as problematic and needingto be replaced by cognitive science due to the insufficient knowledgeof teachers and student teachers, the shortage of teachers inthe country as a whole and disciplinary problems in the classroom.The debate is primarily fuelled by those outside the field ofeducational research, who argue that psychology and neurosciencescholars should have the power to define the contentof education, which indicates a view of professionalism as insideout-professionalism. There are more nuanced approaches to teachereducation as well, but these are marginalised.

The education system is still important for establishing and maintaining democracy in society. In relation to this, it is reasonable to suggest that teachers’ different interpretations of their mission to teach for democracy will influence their teaching practices. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on student teachers’ task perceptions as a dimension of their professional role to teach for democracy in school. An analysis of Swedish student teachers’ course texts written as an assignment during a course focusing on democracy is conducted using critical discourse analysis as an analytical tool. The task perceptions are described according to two main discourses: as narrow and broad approaches to teaching for democracy. These two approaches are further analyzed in terms of two corresponding strategies for teacher professionalism: outside-in professionalism and inside-out professionalism. The result partly confirms earlier studies of student teachers, where narrow approaches to democracy have been found to be most common.

In this study we report on findings from a larger critical discourse analysis of official policy documents, in relation to the democratic (ethical) identity of the teacher educator in the Republic of Ireland and Sweden. The study framed with critical theory positions teacher education within competing discourses of education. The research methodology examines the hypothesis that in the last decade there has been a paradigm shift in the way policy documents regard the democratic (ethical) identity of the teacher educator (teacher). In an earlier study we completed a historical contextual overview and a preliminary comparative word count of four policy documents, two documents from each country, at the start of this century and more recently. The study reported in this paper consists of a comparative initial textual analysis in relation to the same four policy documents. Findings indicate a substantive paradigm shift in both countries from a predominantly progressive (pragmatic) discourse in the early years of this century to a more essentialist (technocratic) discourse in recent times. The study raises concerns not only about the democratic (ethical) identity of the teacher educator but also about the contemporary role for education as a social and political shaper of values (democratic) and emancipation.

42. Exploring moral responsibility(ies) within argumentations for the use of historical consciousnes

Edling, Silvia

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

Totalitarian and nationalistic ideas, violence, and mass-murder of dissidents are part of our history; Educational programs like Council of Europe and the Forum for living history are created with the aim that knowledge about moral and ethical violence in the past can support students’ sense of moral responsibilities in the present (Selman & Barr, 2009). In this context, moral responsibility means broadly an obligation not to harm others (Kamm, 2007). In the 1980s a ‘moral’ turn took place in historical scholarship which implied that questions concerning good and bad as well right and wrong were recognized as vital in history education (cf. Cotkin: 2008). This process was closely intertwined with the development of historical consciousness within the field of history education (cf. Jensen, 1978). Following Rüsen (2004), historical consciousness can be regarded as a narrative competence, a narrative ability to generate well-grounded interpretations of the world in relation to the past, the present, and the future.Accordingly, history education carries an important possibility to develop students’ commitment to moral responsibility and democracy in the present. However, the moral dimension in relation to the concept historical consciousness has, to date, only been raised in a general manner (Rüsen, 2004), which makes it difficult to theoretically understand the link between historical and moral consciousness.With this as a background, the purpose of the paper is to conceptually deepen the understanding of moral responsibilities present in descriptions of historical consciousness. This is done by exploring how a) historical consciousness as a concept developed during the 1960s, b) its relationship to didaktik, and c) theme(s) of moral responsibility(ies) expressed in theoretical definitions of historical consciousness. As such, the research this paper draws on will provide a typology of moral themes aligned with the use of historical consciousness in education, which can function as a support for teacher judgments (cf. Schön, 1983). Sources used about historical consciousness are a selection of those frequently referred to in various published literature and university-level text books for teacher education students in Sweden, Finland, and Australia.Inspired by Faircloughs’ (1995) critical discourse analysis the material will be analyzed in three steps: (1) a text-analysis where the use of words and their intercorrelation have been essential to depict, (2) an interpretation, implying a structuring of the discursive themes found, and (3) an explanation of the themes discovered which are placed in a broader social context and research body.

Documentation of pedagogical practise has become a vibrant issue through its relationship with educational policy- and government in many national contexts. Documentation is also regularly used as a tool for local, collegial development, not necessarily driven by the external demands for accounting educational outcomes. Against this background, the practise of documentation could be related to different modes of teacher professionalism; outside-in-professionalism, characterized by teachers as responding to external and standardized demands, and inside-out-professionalism characterized by teachers as responding to complexity and change, through qualified judgment.

Although documentation is regularly employed as a tool for local, collegial development, the responsibility for documentation commissioned by educational authorities remains an assignment, coming with consequences for how to relate this self-initiated local documentation to the demands of the educational authorities. The purpose of this presentation is to investigate the tension, between documentation based in inside-out-professionalism and outside-in-professionalism, by means of a case study from the Swedish preschool. Our research questions reads: how do external demands of documentation impact on the collegial conditions of documenting practise? How do professional conditions of documenting impact on the external demands of documentation?

Our analytical point of departure proceeds from the assumption that documentation is shaped from certain positions, interests and perspectives (Vallberg Roth 2012), including the crossing between different interests and logics within educational institutions. A qualitative case study of one preschool setting in which a long term documentation has been performed, using CoRe (pedagogical content representation) has been adapted as an approach for teaching science, in a practice based research collaboration project, will be related to intentions from the municipality. The gathering of data includes participant observations in preschool and interviews with participating preschool teachers, at municipal briefings, interviews with responsible parties representing the local preschool as educational agency, and by collection of documents.

The expected outcomes of our study indicate that preschool teachers are acting between norms of designing documentation from their professional and local interests and that of adapting to the interests of the educational agencies. The first norm is based in their collegial self-defined needs (in collaboration with the researchers) for teaching science in preschool, mainly by teaching science and technology themes, paying attention to preschool children’s responses to science and technology content. The second norm is characterised by accounting for national goals in the national syllabus, in ways corresponding with the national school system. The preschool teachers respond to this latter assignment through (professional) deliberations, aiming to deliver material from their everyday work to the agency, while simultaneously keeping the integrity of their own work as separated from the assignment of the agency. These local deliberations and decisions will further be analysed in terms of the dynamic between the two modes of professionalism mentioned above, in light of the local policy context.

Our project shed light on conditions shared with several European countries regarding possibilities for sustainable teacher development within broader contexts of demands for accountability impacting on teachers professional work.

This paper reports on an ongoing practice-based research project in which preschool teachers and researchers collaborate on the content in physics. The aim is to contribute to a deeper knowledge of preschool teachers’ design for teaching physics (friction) and how children create meaning of the content. The research questions are: How do the preschool teachers design learning opportunities so that the children can create meaning about friction? How do young children create meaning from the teaching aids that are offered to them? A number of studies have reported on preschool children’s (aged 5-6 years) and older children’s misconceptions in their reasoning about natural phenomena and how this differs from accepted scientific ideas. Previous research has also shown that there is a gap in preschool teachers’ knowledge of natural science and physics. Most of the research in this field has focused on the effect of preschool teachers’ teaching of natural phenomena rather than children´s meaning-making and learning processes. Research on young children´s (aged 3-7) learning often highlights their individual knowledge and emphasises cognitive understanding and conceptual development. The most common methods used are interviews, pre- and post-tests that aim to show cognitive understanding and scientific conceptual development as an effect of the teaching intervention. When it comes to preschool education and young children’s learning, children´s experiences of natural phenomena are seldom verbal, but are instead physical and practical. In this respect, there is a need to use different methods to investigate preschool activities in order to acquire more knowledge about preschool teachers’ teaching and young children’s meaning-making of natural phenomena. In order to deal with these challenges, this study adopts a multimodal design-oriented qualitative approach and makes use of the concepts of representation and transformation. Here, the focus is on preschool teachers’ and children’s creation of symbols as a social activity. The use of symbols combines content and form in order to carry meaning and create and express conditions for meaning-making. The data consists of audiotaped video self-reflection seminars (focusing on children’s verbal, physical and practical actions) and semi-structured interviews with nine preschool teachers. The findings indicate that preschool teachers’ teaching of physics is closely linked with their vision of how the subject will stimulate the children’s learning. They also show how friction is represented in connection with play, outdoor activities and experimental activities. The results of the children’s meaning-making show that they become familiar with friction as a notion in relation to everyday experiences and are in that way introduced to what friction means in scientific terms. Further, the children relate their experiences of play to their own bodies and preferences, for example, by learning that icy slopes are slippery (low friction), that surfaces are slippery or rough (have different friction) and friction has force (over-under effect). These findings address the relevance and implications for science education and research by moving from the idea of focusing on children’s verbal communication and their conceptual understanding of natural phenomena towards an approach that includes their learning processes and physical experien

49. Preschool Teachers´ Professional Development : Teachers and Researchers in Collaboration

Elm, Annika

et al.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Curriculum studies.

Liljestrand, Johan

University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Educational sciences, Educational science, Education.

As in many other European countries early childhood education, including preschool, includes teaching in the area of subject knowledge. In Sweden this is related to a changed policy in order to connect preschool with the school system. Since 2011, “teaching” has been established as a new aspect of the preschool’s mandate and, since 2010, subjects like maths, science have been added to the national syllabus. Earlier, subjects has also been part of a preschool tradition already present in Fröbel’s kindergarten. In this earlier approach the intention was not to prepare for the forthcoming school and its subject content. Today, the national preschool syllabus has subject goals that overlaps with those of the school, often stated in a rather detailed, academic form. In addition, the Swedish school inspectorate has also included the preschools in its evaluations. According to the Swedish education act, practice should be based on scientific knowledge and proven experience. These changed directives comes with increasing expectations and demands on the preschool teacher profession for implementing this assignment. In light of this background we aim to support the preschool teachers to develop a professional and inside-out based (Stanley & Stronach 2013) knowledge for acting as professionals in this changed context. In this contribution we will direct our interest on the subject area of science and technology.

Previous research has identified possibilities or lack of possibilities for science and technology learning in early childhood environments, with a tendency to a ‘diagnostic’ approach to preschool teacher knowledge. However, this research does not go far enough in investigating programs for developing preschool teachers´ science content knowledge (e.g. Nilsson, 2014; Fleer, 2009; Nilsson & Elm, 2017). Against the background of the need for including preschool teachers experiences and knowledge in a fair way (cf. Berry et al. 2008), while simultaneously recognize the need of further development in subject content, in the institutional frame of the preschool, we will address preschool teachers pedagogic content knowledge (PCK). The latter (PCK) refers to teachers´ understanding of the content and experiences and attitudes towards science. Our research question reads: In what ways can collaboration between preschool teachers´ and researchers contribute to preschool teachers’ professional learning and preschool development with special regard to preschool teachers’ pedagogic content knowledge?

Our methodological approach is guided by Participatory Action Research (PAR) highlighting the need of a democratic process, developing of practical knowledge related to issues that are of great concern for the participants (Reason & Bradbury 2001). Furthermore, PAR recognizes our partners’ knowledge and experiences as a vital element to be brought into the research process (Brydon-Miller, Greenwood & Maguire, 2003). Thus, an important factor is the interaction between the researcher and the interests within the educational field, in order to promote both researchers and the practitioners work and goals. From this starting point there is initially an explicitly stated drive to meet on equal terms and to support each other to develop.

The other leg, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) includes teachers’ understanding of how children learn, or fail to learn; in relation to this specific subject matter has been found to be an important matter. That is, a perspective on professional development that focus on preschool teachers´ understanding of the content, pedagogical content knowledge and attitudes towards science (cf. Schulman, 1987; Van Driel & Berry, 2012). Representation of teacher content knowledge (CoRe) by means of a commonly developed table, is systematically used as a tool to trigger preschool teachers´ ideas of both science and technology content as a tool for development and cooperation.

Methodology or Methods/ Research Instruments or Sources Used

9 preschool teachers during 1,5 year (currently ongoing) participates in the research project which includes both indoors- and outdoors activities focusing on technology and science content, paying attention to children’s perspectives. The teachers are meeting in reflective group sessions once a month. For this paper data was collected through a qualitative approach consisting of 23 + 29 hours recorded semi structured interviews with the participating preschool teachers from one preschool unit. The interviews were conducted after the first and third semester of participation. Data was then analysed out from thematic content analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

As Braun and Clarke (2006) argue, it is a method that requires researchers to be clear about what they do, why they do it and how the analysis is conducted. The analyses of the data in this study were part of an inductive process from a) transcription → b) identifying emergent initial codes → c) searching for themes → d) reviewing and revising themes → e) defining and naming themes → f) formulating the result (with the starting point in identified and named themes). First, the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Some of the statements made in the interviews that did not correspond to the subject were not transcribed. Second, the data was read, and assigned initial codes.

The third step involved searching for overall themes, based on the initial codes. In this step, the researchers sorted the data under each theme separately. In the fourth step themes were compared, data were reviewed the themes revised. In this process, similarities were identified in the themes that had emerged in the analysis of the interviews. Related examples of the participants’ learning were examined and refined until consensus was reached. Fifth, to establish the validity of the coding and identified themes, the authors worked to finally define and name the themes. The main data was then compared with the themes and provided a critical overview in terms of aspects being overemphasised, under represented, too vague or biased. The final step in the analysis, with a starting point in the themes, was to formulate the results.

Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings

Our results from the interview data shows that the use of CoRe:s contribute to focus on the speciﬁc content in a more systematic way. Some of the preschool teachers expressed how the use of the CoRe:s and the formulation of ‘Big Ideas’ supported them to establish the fundamental ideas of the topic they were teaching. With documentation in CoRe preschool teachers have been able to make visible aspects of their own practice and to see the educational value of a current situation. In their collegial work, the documentation of CoRe contributes to the preschool teachers distancing themselves from their daily practices and makes them evaluate their actions and activities. Further, the use of CoRE seems to provide a different point for innovative change in the preschool development. In this way, the collective knowledge of a team becomes qualitatively different to that of a single individual. In addition, other themes also comprises: improved knowledge of processes for planning; visibility of different aspects in the daily practice and in children's learning processes; a broader view connected to international and national development in preschool and society, and a practice on scientific basis.

Our research contributes with how “teachers and other professionals on the field of education learn and develop throughout their professional career” in the developing field of early childhood education and its rising expectation of subject knowledge. We also attempt to show how teacher development and the research process is dependent on their reciprocal development in order to be accomplished. In a time characterized by rapid policy changes in the educational systems in Europe, the need for practitioner-researcher collaborations supporting professionalism based on conscious professional agency is of great concern.

The 43rd annual conference A Future for All – Teaching for a Sustainable Society focused on critical questions concerning changes in society. The conference theme emphasized teacher education and education as the solution to broad societal problems. The urgent need to understand the past for building tomorrow with new approaches in education puts important questions in focus regarding human wellbeing, social inclusion, environmental protection and globalization. These perspectives and approaches in research and practice in teaching and teacher education calls for a rethinking of what the educational sciences now consist of and how they are characterised. The central focus of the conference was the relevance of those rethinking perspectives.